Former real estate investor René Benko has been in pre-trial detention since January 2025. Around 3'000 creditors have filed claims exceeding 40 billion euro against him. Following the collapse of Benko's Signa Group, its Munich properties – including the Alte Akademie, the Oberpollinger department store and the Karstadt site near the city's main railway station – have gradually been sold or restructured.
The villa in Innsbruck is owned by the Laura Private Foundation, which was established by Benko. The foundation, in turn, controls around 50 subsidiaries holding approximately 100 properties across Germany, Austria and Italy.
Stefan Geiler, the Innsbruck-based lawyer acting as insolvency administrator for the Laura Private Foundation, has now confirmed plans to explore a new use for the former family residence.
«The property is simply unsuitable for private use under normal circumstances. It makes sense to examine whether redesignating it as a hotel would be beneficial,» Geiler wrote in a confidential report to creditors. He confirmed the contents of the report to the Tiroler Zeitung newspaper.
Annual Costs of 500,000 euro
